The Muse 2012 | Overview & Details
Overview
The Muse and the Marketplace is a two-day literary conference designed to give aspiring writers a better understanding about the craft of writing fiction and non-fiction, inside information about the world of publishing, and thoughtful networking opportunities. On both days, prominent and nationally-recognized authors lead sessions on the craft of writing - the "muse" side of things - while editors, literary agents, and publicists lead sessions on the business or "marketplace" for one's work. Grub Street also offers the Manuscript Mart, at which, for an additional fee, an attendee can meet one-on-one with an established literary agent or editor who has read his or her work in advance and provides direct feedback. Many conferences offer pitch sessions, but The Muse and the Marketplace is one of the rare conferences where your actual pages will be discussed and thoughtfully evaluated by an agent or editor.The Conference Includes....
1.) Your choice of 4 or 8 sessions, depending on whether you register for one day or the full weekend. Session choices feature a mix of craft seminars and industry-focused panels with agents and editors, which you select in advance. 2.) On Saturday, a sit-down, served three-course lunch in the Imperial Ballroom of the Park Plaza hotel. For an additional fee of $75, you may choose to sit at one of our "Shop Talk" lunch tables, which includes a combination of four authors, editors, and agents. These tables are located in the adjacent Plaza ballroom to provide a quieter atmosphere more conducive for networking and socializing. 3.) On Sunday, a keynote lunch with remarks by renowned author Julia Alvarez. This is a sit-down, served three-course lunch in the Imperial Ballroom with open seating. 4.) On Saturday evening, our first-ever "Marketplace Keynote" with publishing visionary Richard Nash. 5.) On Saturday night, our first-ever National Book Prize reading and reception with Eileen Pollack and Wendy Call. 6.) Our annual Manuscript Mart, in which you can spend 20 minutes discussing your work one-on-one with a prominent literary agent or editor, who will have read the work in advance. (The Manuscript Mart costs an additional $140).When & Where
The Muse & the Marketplace will be from Saturday, May 5th to Sunday, May 6th, 2012 at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel, 50 Park Plaza at Arlington Street, Boston. On both days, the program begins at 8:00am. The Park Plaza Hotel is handicapped accessible.Schedule of Events
Saturday, May 5th, 2012| 8:00 - 9:45am | Registration, Continental Breakfast, Meet & Greet |
| 8:30 - 9:40am | Manuscript Mart Sessions I, II and III |
| 9:45 - 11:00am | Session 1 Seminars and Panels |
| 11:15 - 12:30pm | Session 2 Seminars and Panels |
| 12:45 - 2:00pm | Casual Lunch. Attendees may sit at a "Shop Talk" table for an additional fee. Grub Street happily accommodates vegetarian and allergy needs. |
| 2:15 - 3:30pm | Session 3 Seminars and Panels |
| 3:45 - 4:45pm | Hour of Power Seminars Manuscript Mart Sessions IV, V, VI and VII |
| 4:45 - 5:30pm | Cash Bar, Meet & Greet. |
| 5:30 - 7:00pm | Marketplace Keynote: Richard Nash |
| 8:15 - 9:30pm | National Book Prize Reading & Reception with Wendy Call and Eileen Pollack. |
| 8:00 - 9:45am | Registration, Continental Breakfast, Meet & Greet |
| 8:30 - 9:40am | Manuscript Mart VIII, IX and X |
| 9:45 - 11:00am | Session 4 Seminars and Panels |
| 11:15 - 12:30pm | Session 5 Seminars and Panels |
| 12:45 - 2:30pm | Keynote Lunch with Julia Alvarez. Open seating. Grub Street happily accommodates vegetarian and allergy needs. |
| 2:45 - 4:00pm | Session 6 Seminars and Panels |
| 4:15 - 5:15pm | Hour of Power Seminars |
| 5:15 - 6:00pm | Cash Bar, Meet and Greet |
Choosing Sessions & Appointments
In attending the conference, you'll have numerous opportunities to participate in sessions on both the craft of writing and the world of publishing. All sessions are led by renowned authors, literary agents, editors and special guests whose bios you can read here. Many of these presenters are generously donating their time, effort, and expertise, such that all proceeds from the Muse and the Marketplace are used to support Grub Street and in particular our free outreach programs for teens and elderly seniors. To contribute as well, or become an official sponsor of the Muse, click here. All sessions are considered fit for a "intermediate to advanced" level of writer, with the exception of the "Essentials Of..." sessions, which are led by active Grub Street instructors and designed for the beginning writer or those who want to revisit the fundamentals. Each session is characterized by one of the following formats: Lecture with Q&A, Discussion, Guided Writing Exercises, Panel Discussion, or a combination of the above. Please read session descriptions carefully to decide which is best for you. Each session leader has been asked to provide at least one handout. All sessions generally have between 15 and 55 participants. While "Literary Idol" and other interactive sessions offer the chance to get direct feedback on your work in a group setting, no sessions are traditional workshops that offer a thorough critique of your manuscript. If you are interested in getting such feedback, consider submitting a 20-page manuscript to the Manuscript Mart. You are required to select which sessions you would like to attend when you register for the conference in advance. Please know that some sessions fill very quickly. If your session descriptions ask you to bring or read work in advance, please do so. You do not have to pre-register for the "Hour of Power" sessions, which you may sample at the conference. Hours of Power are filled on a first-come, first-served basis and are limited to the number of chairs set up in each room. When you register, the online form you complete represents a series of your REQUESTS to be placed in particular sessions/appointments, and NOT official placement. One week before the conference, we will email you a final itinerary of all your sessions and applicable Manuscript Mart/Lunch Table appointments, based on the preferences you submit here. While it's extremely likely that you will be placed with all your top choices if those choices are available at the time of registration, we cannot guarantee those placements. Grub Street reserves the right to make changes to our conference offerings at any time due to unforeseen circumstances, but will always let you know in advance if we need to do so.The Muse Keynote with Julia Alvarez and Marketplace Keynote with Richard Nash
New this year, Grub Street welcomes two exciting keynote speakers who will address the entire conference on Saturday afternoon, May 5th, and over lunch on Sunday, May 6th. Both addresses will take place in the Imperial Ballroom. The addresses will last approximately one hour, and the speaker will take your questions on the content of the talk, as well as other relevant questions related to his or her talk.
This year our Muse keynote address will be delivered by the incomparable Julia Alvarez, author of five novels, including How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, In the Time of the Butterflies, ¡Yo! In the Name of Salomé, and Saving the World. She has also published four books of poems, including Homecoming and The Other Side/El Otro Lado, The Woman I Kept to Myself, as well as a book of essays, a work of non-fiction, Once Upon a Quinceañera, and many books for young readers. Alvarez is a writer-in-residence at Middlebury College. She is also the founder, with her husband Bill Eichner, of Alta Gracia, an organic farm-literacy arts center, in her homeland of the Dominican Republic. Her book, A Cafecito Story, is a modern “green” fable based on this project. She is the recipient of many awards, including the F. Scott Fitzgerald Award for Outstanding Achievement in American Literature and the Hispanic Heritage Award in Literature. Her books have been translated in eighteen countries and several of them have been adapted for film and the stage. Her latest work of non-fiction, A Wedding in Haiti, will be published in Spring 2012 by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill.
This year our Marketplace keynote speaker is publishing visionary Richard Nash, VP of Community and Content of Small Demons, founder of Cursor, and Publisher of Red Lemonade. He ran the iconic Soft Skull Press for which work he was awarded the Association of American Publishers' Award for Creativity in Independent Publishing in 2005. Books he published landed on bestseller lists from the Boston Globe to the Singapore Straits-Times; on the Best of the Year lists from The Guardian to the Toronto Globe & Mail to the Los Angeles Times; his final book was a 2010 Pulitzer Prize finalist. Last year the Utne Reader named him one of Fifty Visionaries Changing Your World and Mashable.com picked him as the #1 Twitter User Changing the Shape of Publishing.